Founded in 2002, the Society encourages the creation of watercolor at all skill levels and promotes interest, appreciation and enjoyment of watercolor and watermedia. Please feel free to attend one of our meetings. Monthly meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month, at 10 a.m. at the Cincinnati Art Club, 1021 Parkside Place, Cincinnati, Ohio, unless otherwise noted.

Friday, May 16, 2014

At our May
meeting, Rhonda Carpenter introduced our program “guest”, Marilyn Bishop.As many of you know, Marilyn, with several
other people, founded our Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society, has served as
president in the past, and is graciously serving again.Rhonda explained that Marilyn is a very
“experimental” artist, always trying new things, and new ways of doing old
things.She loves textures and shapes,
and is always saying “What if . . . . . ?”.Marilyn has a wonderfully diverse learning background, and she now
teaches and gives workshops also.Her
work is shown in many galleries around the area.The subject for her May presentation- - - “Saving and/or Enhancing Your
Watercolor Paintings”.

First,
Marilyn asked herself a tongue-in-cheek question “Why am I always giving demos
on “failed” watercolor paintings?”
Then, as she began her demo, she put down newspaper, and donned a
plastic glove on her right hand. She
explained that she would be using pastels, and that they are rather messy. She also told us not to “blow away” the
pastel “dust”, as it could then enter our lungs. She showed us a painting that she wished
she had done differently. From past
experience, she believes that pastels cannot save a large painting if there are
many areas to be changed, but if one uses just a part of it, good results can
happen. She uses a mat as a frame, moving
it around the painting until she finds a section that will work. Marilyn gave us a handout about non-objective
design elements (Gerard Brommer), that she uses to find the section she wants
to “save”. Marilyn “saved” three
different paintings during the demo.

Marilyn begins looking for a section of a "failed" painting that she will use
to create a new, smaller painting utilizing her pastels.

She has made her selection!

She always
uses the same mat for her frame. Mark
the desired area, and then cut around this part.

Mat surrounding the area to be cut away from the existing painting.

Measuring the area to cut out.

Cutting out the "new" painting.

Also, from experience, Marilyn encourages
the use of quality pastels, such as Windsor-Newton. She now owns soft, hard, and oil
pastels. She selects colors to cover
some of the watercolor paint that is unsatisfactory; sometimes using a flat
chisel color shaper to move the pastel color around the paper; sometimes her
gloved finger. The pastels will cover up
“mistakes”, even using a lighter color of pastel to cover a darker watercolor,
but there is a limit to the amount of pastel you can use. Pastels can also soften some hard edges of
watercolor.

Adding pastels.

Utilizing a "color shaper" to move the pastels.

Adding pastels . . .

. . . using color shaper . . .

. . . using color shaper .

Before . . .

. . . using her finger . . .

. . . then the color shaper.

Now that you
are happier with your “new” painting, and are ready to frame, cut a mat that
has a smaller opening than your regular mat.
Put it between the painting with the pastel on it, and your regular mat,
to keep the pastel “dust” from getting on the regular mat. You can use double-sided tape to hold the two
mats together. You may want to slide this
into a plastic sleeve until framing.
These sleeves can be purchased online from GT Bag Co.

Ready, set . . .

Mat! (The completed painting)

The reason
Marilyn is always giving demos on “failed” paintings is because we all have
some of those, and we think she has the best answers on what to do about it!

Monday, May 12, 2014

What a
special day for our group today! After
president Marilyn Bishop called us to order, Joan O’Leary, our Young Artist
Award Chair, introduced the winners of the two $500 Young Artist Awards we are
giving this year to students of the CincinnatiArtAcademy.

Blake Evans

The winner of our own Mary Marxen Young Artist Award is Blake
Evans. Blake, coming from a construction
background, is a “non-traditional” student, in that he was in the workforce for
nine years before he decided to follow his dream of having a career creating
Art. He is now a freshman at the ArtAcademy, trying all kinds of hands-on Art,
particularly drawing and painting. He
said he thinks he is a better student now than he would have been at 18, and he
is truly happy in his endeavor.

Katlyn Wolary

The winner
of our on-going traditional Young Artist Award is a traditional student, Katlyn
Wolary, also a freshman at the ArtAcademy.
Katlyn is also a traditionalist in her love of the classics, and past
masters. She particularly likes figure
work and painting in oils. She is
currently very interested in the works of Frank Duvenek, local artist from Covington, KY who has much work in the Greater
Cincinnati area, and at the Art Museum.
Katlyn is from the Wilmington, OH area, and is very excited to be involved in the
Greater Cincinnati artistic community, where she is receiving much
encouragement in her desire to make a career in the Arts.

Blake and
Katlyn were the stars of the party that followed with beautiful cakes and
coffee. They were very grateful for
their scholarships that will enable them to purchase many needed items for
their art studies. Congratulations to
them on their accomplishments!

Marilyn then
introduced our newest member, Kathy Lang, and a guest, Jackie Simmons, from St.
Leon, IN. Deb Ward, membership, noted
that we now have 75 members, and passed out flyers that we can use to give to
prospective members. Deb also passed out
forms for becoming a Featured Artist.
We’d like everyone to take a turn being “featured”.

Sally
Wester, Treasurer, gave her report. We
were able to make a little extra on the recent workshop, and our treasury is in
good shape.

Good
news! Joan O’Leary has agreed to be our
new Program Coordinator. Thanks, Joan! Of course, this means that we will need a new
Young Artist Award Chair. Think about
it, please.

Rhonda
Carpenter, current Program Chair, talked about our program for June – Carol
Carter will come and bring a large number of her paintings to show, and she
will talk about the life of a fulltime, working artist, and how to market your
work. Sounds interesting!

More good
news! Dianna Duncan has agreed to be
the Workshop Coordinator for a Spring 2015 workshop. Dianna explained that she felt called to do
this, as she believes that members must step forward and take some
responsibility to keep our club vibrant and worthwhile.

Carol
McAfee, Annual Show Coordinator, has been working hard on preparing for our
GCWS Show, which will be held in August, 2014, at the Women’s ArtClubCulturalCenter “The BARN”, in Mariemont.

See information about the show by clicking on our "Upcoming Program Information" page on the side bar.

All members will receive a Registration
Form, with all information, in plenty of time to sign up.Basic info that you need now:

GCWS 2014
Exhibit at the “Barn”, 6980 Cambridge Ave., Mariemont, OH

Pre-Registration
Date: August 1,
2014

Hanging
Date: August 13,
2014; Take Down; August 26, 2014

Reception
Date: August 17,
20141:00 – 4:00 p.m.

There will
be first, second, and third prizes. If
you won last year, please exhibit, but someone else will have a chance to win
this year. If you sell, a 20% fee will
be due to the Barn.

Joan
Ammerman will be in charge of our Library, which now has three new DVDs
purchased by Marilyn, from artists that she highly respects. You may borrow these DVDs for one month,
signing them out when you take them, and signing them in when you return
them. The new DVDs are 1) Watercolor from Within, by Barbara
Nechis, 2) Basic Perspective, by Gerald Brommer, and 3) Layers of Design in Watercolor, by Linda Baker.

Announcements:

Ardelle
Duffy’s paintings were accepted into the “Splash” Show at the KennedyHeightsArtCenter.
Show is from May 31-July 12;
Reception: May 31, 6-9 p.m.
Congratulations to Ardelle!

Shirley
Knollman won the “Purchase Award” at the McCullough-HydeHospital “Healing Arts”. The event opened May 2, and will hang for one
year. After the show, Shirley’s painting
will be placed in the hospital permanently.
Congratulations to Shirley!

Kristie
Mooney told us she is moving back to Seattle.
Best of luck to Kristie.

Following the program we had time for critique and "show and tell."

Rhonda Carpenter presents her paintings from the Carol Carter workshop in April.

Diana Marra will have a Solo Exhibit at Evendale Cultural Arts Center, Opening Friday March 2 from 6-8. The Exhibit is called "A Taste of Asia" and will of course have Sake and Sushi in addition to the usual wine-and-cheese Opening fare. Exhibit is also open 12-4 on Sat. and Sunday March 3 & 4. Diana will offer a mini-workshop - "A Taste" - on Wed. March 14, 6:30-8, cost $20 / all materials provided in 3 versions of oriental-style painting. For more information contact Diana.

Diana Marra will also have an opening at Christ Church Cathedral, 318 E. 4th Street, Cincinnati "Flowers Everywhere" Thursday March 1 from 5:30-8 p.m. and will have a painting in the Cincinnati Art Club Associates Show at Parkside Place where we meet for GCWS, Friday March 2 6-9.